Cobwebs, Dust and a few Living Brain Cells

Personally I Prefer…

“I love her legs in this picture. Her legs are so sexy,” Williams said, studying the black and white shot of Sharapova sitting in a short skirt on a court. “She is not being sold in this picture. This is a hot picture. If you’re not ready to sell pictures, then you shouldn’t be part of the tournament. Unfortunately, I hate to say it, but sex sells.”

Indeed it does. But that isn’t what sold me on this story, it’s nothing more than a promo for this week’s WTA Championships, and how they are utilizing Sharapova as the advertising centerpiece.

No, what caught my eye was Sharapova’s complaints of recent chest and shoulder injuries. Recalling her injuries in itself is nothing unsual, it’s the reason for her discomfort that is of interest. She claims that the official WTA Tour balls are too heavy.

“They are heavy on my arm,” Sharapova said Tuesday, two days ahead of her opening match at the eight-women round robin event against compatriot Vera Zvonareva.

“It’s something that the Tour and (CEO) Larry Scott have to look into. I’m sure the WTA doesn’t want anyone to get injured.”

Now, help me out here. Can anyone explain how a round orb that is hollow, composed of inflated rubber, covered with a fabric made of wool and artificial fibers and weighs between 1.98 and 2.1 oz (56 and 59.4 g) can cause “tennis chest?” Apparently Tour officials couldn’t either, spokesman Darrell Fry said “There’s no correlation at all between player injuries and Tretorn balls.”

But wait, there’s more. This strange amalgamation of “tennis chest,” “sexy” Sharapova and “hard balls” jogged my memory of a post at Tokyo Times Blog. Lee has detailed to what extremes the Japanese press and Sharapova fans have gone to obtain “panty shots” of Maria during her recent tour stop in Japan. One reporter explained, “when she served, everyone got ready to take photos of her panties. Nine out of ten of these guys were geeks whose cameras were aimed below the belt.”

And alas, my normally closeted perverted mind made its appearence and connected the “hard balls” to “tennis chest” to “panty shots” dots.